3D Crossword Solution – April 2026

Clues and Grid by Soup

Theme: JMW Turner

Winner: Barbara Birkwood of Dorset

Review of the April 2026 3D crossword

Following what proved to be a stiff challenge in March, there may well have been a sigh of relief from some solvers upon seeing Soup’s name on the April offering. Looking back to my last review of a puzzle by Soup, an Eightsome Reels in November 2024, if you are keen to revisit the archives, I noted that Soup’s own description of what makes a successful clue was “pith, and ideally, but not always, humour. Good grammar on the surface and within the cryptic reading; a surface that has nothing to do with the solution.” This turned out to be a puzzle with a multitude of successful clues.

It is invidious to pick out favourites amongst so many fine examples but I especially appreciated the variety of elegant, inventive and amusing clues: CREWS (‘Men told to go to sea’); JASON (‘Chap seen on the first of five consecutive months’) — I haven’t seen this clue before, so, if it is a Soup original, it is brilliant; MATELOT (‘Sailor’s destiny: to follow another’); TIERS (‘People joining rows’); PURER (‘Page by painter [German, not Dutch] having fewer bad bits’); R and R (‘Downtime for two characters onboard ferry’); MEDEA (‘As a posh chap might be heard to address his wife, who had a vision.’ — cheeky but hilarious. Soup is a setter who quite clearly loves words and thoroughly enjoys his art (as we shall see later).

Again, we have Soup to thank not just for the clues but also for the grid and hence the theme. The background photograph is of a rusty bicycle pedal — what could that possibly imply? I had made up my mind not to go straight to Google to look up famous births in 1775 (since this puzzle commemorates the subject’s 251^st birthday). We learn from Day 20 that our subject is a painter and it was the reference to Fighting Temeraire that clinched it for me. We are talking about Turner — ah, the pedal, geddit? But the thematic content is richer and more subtle than that; so subtle, in fact, that I am not sure I have spotted all the oblique references to JMWT’s works. We have MARGATE, LORDS, TAMAR, MEDEA, RAFTS as entries and copious allusions contained within the clues: ‘Dieppe’, ‘flight into Egypt’, ‘Fighting Temeraire’, ‘a disaster at sea’, ‘East Cowes’, ‘Rough Sea’, ‘sun over a cornfield with reapers’, ‘Thames at Eton.’ There may well be more, since the artist’s output was prodigious. Also, who knew that Turner’s second name was Mallord? You would struggle with the clue for LORDS at 10 if you didn’t.

And now, to the final bow from our setter. Some of the entries clash, so ‘the subject’s surname should be literally applied to four solutions before entry in the grid.’ You must TURN ER. This straightforward device must be applied to the four entries which form other words when ER is reversed: THERE, CONCRETED, TIERS and TIMBERS. Tada!

Altogether, then, a splendid, highly satisfying and enjoyable solving experience — thank you, Soup.

KM

Grid solution

Visual clue

The first stanza of Rudyard Kipling’s poem “If—” is written in mirror image across outlines of the maps of India and New Zealand. Reversing IF and spreading it across the abbreviations for the two countries gives:

[I NZ] inside IF< = FINZI

Background image

The backdrop to this month’s puzzle is a rusty bicycle crank by Daniel Kirsch (Pixabay licence).

Clues and explanations

Thematic solutions are indicated with an asterisk.

Solvers’ comments

Clever theme. For the 4 answers that had to be modified I wasn’t sure whether I needed to put the answers to the clues or the answers I entered into the grid. [KD] [Always treat the entry form as you would the grid – Ed.]

Beautifully composed tribute to a great artist. [NI]

Lovely inclusions of thematic material. [TH]

Gentler than March (phew!) … although on the submission form it wasn’t clear whether we were supposed to enter the amended or un-amended forms of the four solutions mentioned in the preamble (I opted for the amended form; fingers crossed). [DW]

Original idea, clever clues, lots of fun [AJ]

Very enjoyable to solve. [LA]

Easy but very enjoyable [RL]

Nice theme, enjoyed working out the TURN-ER device. Several very tricky parsings I thought – RIDES in particular, but also LORDS, THERE, TEDDY. Didnt get the drawing clue even with the answer but that’s not unusual for me! With thanks to all. [JC]

Wow, that was a workout for the old grey matter, the answers were sometimes obvious but the parsing took some work up to and including Frank Paul’s drawing. Souper. [SC]

Really enjoyed this puzzle. Plenty of thematic clues and answers, some very neat clueing, and a clever twist. We do have a query, however, so look forward (even more than usual) to the newsletter. Days 22 and 23 appear to be out of alphabetic collating sequence. Thank you Soup – good fun. [CW]

Pro tip: reading the description *before* convincing yourself that you must not know how to spell because the words just aren’t fitting will save many, many hours of frustration… 🙈🤦🏻‍♀️ Thanks for a great puzzle, Soup! [MS]

Quite a gentle romp once the turns became apparent. I’d never heard of Finzi. A few questionable/puzzling constructions: 19, 20, 26, 30, 31. No turn in PURER. [MJ]

Lovely puzzle at first impression. [JT]

Got Turner – but Turn er took longer – interesting conceit – hope it’s right!! [LB]

Another tricky month. I suspect 3 answers are wrong 🙁 [RE]

A lovely puzzle and a gentle theme. Very enjoyable thanks to Soup. [GW]

Kudos for so many references to works by one of my favourite artists. Thanks to Soup for a great puzzle! And thanks to the Hints and Tips which pointed out that the four transformed words had to be entered on the form, not just the grid. I suspect I’m not the only one caught out by this… [RS]

Twigging “turn ER” engendered a groan. [RS]

Eventually the penny clicked and I turned the e and r around in the 4 clues. A great fun puzzle 😎 [DM]

Lovely as always by Soup [JN]

Very clever of Soup to fit in so many references to the titles of Turner’s paintings (seventeen at last count, thought I’m sure I missed some). Along with other references throughout to art, artists, painters, painting, galleries and museums, the recurrent theme made this fun. Things went well until I tried to fit some entries in the grid, so I think that’s something to do with “turning” various letters around to get the entries to fit as the directions imply, so I’ve tried to do that to make things slot together. However, I am pressing “Submit” with a bit of uncertainty as I am really not sure that I have it all right. Thanks to Soup for a wonderfully entertaining challenge. [JA]

Light relief after last month’s complicated challenge, thank goodness! [SF]

A more gentle work-out this month, with a clever twist, which made for an enjoyable bank holiday afternoon. [SB]

The setter may not be good at counting(!), but he can certainly design a 3D crossword set to a worthy theme. The twist (literally) at the end was not obvious at first, but when the penny dropped I was well satisfied with the result. [AB]

That was much gentler than last month’s. No Easter eggs! Nevertheless, a very pleasant solve. [DR]

What a pleasant stroll after March, and a clever play on the subject’s surname! Thank you Soup. [MS]

Not as much of a work out as last month but liked the painting links. Enjoyed Medea! Not sure about the turned letters but 4 words nearly fitted so have had a go. Thanks again. Go 2: have swapped the turned letters back. Go 3: swapped back so must have made another mistake. Last try!! [HH]

Relatively easy but nice twist! [AC]

Fun theme! We had a wow of an aha moment turning the E and the R. [MS]

An enjoyable challenge and a much easier solve than last month. I was working on it the week I visited the Turner & Constable exhibition at Tate Britain so all came together nicely. [JB]

Interesting puzzle with a lot of theme references. Not sure of the ‘turner’ device as I think I only changed 3. [JP]

Thanks Soup. I didn’t have any background knowledge so it was an interesting puzzle to solve. I’ve entered the “turned” answers above – hope that’s what you’re looking for. Not sure why RANDR was listed before RAFTS ? [CF] [The type of alphabetical order followed here is word-by-word (where spaces come before letters), as used in indexes and the sort function in spreadsheet software. So R in ‘R AND R’ comes before RAFTS – Ed]

As usual an interesting puzzle. A lot of googling was required to find various paintings. Luckily the hints arrived as I hadn’t realised that the adjusted entries were needed. [MP]

Clever use of topical subject. Utterly defeated by Day 31. Was hoping it would appear in Hints and Tips! [PD]

Interesting subject and connected clues with a clever twist from the name. [SB]

Good fun. [MG]

It isn’t clear whether we should enter the answer to the clue, or the grid entry. [RR]

Enjoyable but I’m still puzzled about the ‘er’s. [SG]

Re the form submission – it’s unclear whether the solution to submit is the literal solution to the clue, or the solution that went into the grid (post turn-er). [MT]

Great fun and difficult – if I have all answers right I will be very pleased. Loved the twist. [NB]

22.39 on 27/04 and Hints & Tips have still not arrived, so I’ve made a final push, and think I have solved it without them! Many thanks, I see the point eventually. I assume it is the thematically altered answers I have to answer above. [EF]

Very enjoyable, thanks to Soup! Still don’t quite get the parsing of Day 2. Learned a lot about his paintings I hadn’t known! [JS]

I enjoyed the clues but the turn er threw me so much! I was trying to figure out if I need to turn the whole clue and I worked out the final clues but couldn’t figure out why they weren’t fitting. I needed to wait for the hints & tips so I could figire out what “apply the surname literally” meant – then it seemed super obvious! Good enjoyable crossword otherwise – it felt doable and I knew nearly all of the words, most months I feel there’s a couple more words I’ve never heard of before!! [HM]

Great puzzle [MD]

I enjoyed it as a fan of the theme, got a bit caught out by the turning of er but the hints and tips helped explain that. Also helped with telling me that it is the turned answers that should be shown as the answers. I don’t know if I got 10 correct as I couldn’t parse the first bit of the clue. I wished this was in the hints and tips rather than any of the others. [JC]

Definitely needed the hints and tips for this one. [RP]

Thank you for the art lesson, Soup! [CPP]

Very clever use of the theme, thank you. I was very much thrown by days 22 and 23 not being in alphabetical order. [JT] [The type of alphabetical order followed here is word-by-word (where spaces come before letters), as used in indexes and the sort function in spreadsheet software. So R in ‘R AND R’ comes before RAFTS – Ed]

Another fab puzzle with a cunningly integrated theme, which I managed to arrive at quite quickly thanks to a recent visit to an exhibition of the subject’s work (alongside Constable’s) at the Tate Britain. [HJ]

Learned a lot about the subject. Fun and games understanding the puzzle’s twist. Nevertheless, very enjoyable! [MH]

It’s always good to come across another quirky device. There are so many clever people out there! [PA]

Lovely puzzle, learned lots about a painter I knew little about. [AR]

Excellent fun! Very clever puzzle, and interesting to learn so much about the theme subject as well. Thanks! [SH]

Too hard for me [SW]

Enjoyed it [RM]